Wednesday, 12 March 2014

The film-maker says that the government has sadly never realised the actual potential of the film industry in our country. PHOTO COURTESY: EXPRESS NEWS

KARACHI: Saeed Rizvi, director of the 1989 Lollywood filmShanee, is all set to up his game in the film industry by gaining insight into the evolving art of film-making from Hollywood. He shared the news with the press at Karachi Press Club on Monday afternoon.

“The Government of Pakistan needs to promote the film industry by setting up a Film Authority and Finance Corporation, so that we may be able to compete in the international market,” he suggests.

He is soon to visit the United States (US), a visit that is meant to fulfil his wish of learning and mastering new film-making tricks from the Hollywood industry, including digital effects.

He promises that his new venture will revolutionise the Pakistan film industry. Without disclosing the name of the film, he shared, “The new film project will be based on fiction, suspense and horror.”

The last time he went to the US, he learnt about Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI). Now, he plans on taking his learning process ahead by acquainting himself with other techniques to generate technical effects.

He is of the view that “Today, we have better cineplexes across town. However, we need to improve our films, so that we can develop better foreign exchange in this market.”

About his forthcoming trip, he says he plans on learning from Hollywood by participating in workshops. “My venture this time [comprises] delving into innovative plans, for which I will be visiting Los Angeles and New York.”

He praised Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for establishing the National Film Development Corporation (NAFDEC) in 1972, but said [the organisation] “breathed its last due to bureaucratic mismanagement and after that, the government failed to play its role in supporting the film industry. It didn’t even accept the fact that we were the ones who paid huge amounts of money in taxes… Sadly, the government has never realised the actual potential of the film industry in our country.”